Probably the best thing to say about "The Astro Zombies" is that it has some scantily clad, large breasted women in it. Besides that, this cult horror murder-porn flick is really awful. It definitely is a so bad its funny film (notice I didn't say "so bad, it's good"?). It follows an all too familiar routine of a nonsense story mixed with footage of women in underwear, being killed by a monster (the self-titled Astro Zombie). For 1968 it even shows a painted naked striptease woman for the young adult males (teens?) who were definitely the target audience for the film. IMdb states that the budget was under $40K which I can believe, although it makes me wonder how much the credited actors got for being in the film ($5 a day?). Noted Hollywood actors associated with this are Wayne Rogers of MASH fame writing the screenplay. His replacement on MASH, Mike Farrell, was involved in another riffed Z grade sci-fi flick that was shot the same year but not released until later, "The Doomsday Machine." We also have featured billing by well known Z grade film stars Wendell Corey and John Carradine. The version of Astro Zombies I watched was one where the film is being "riffed" (by Rifftrax), I would at this point of my life not watch this type of material without some supporting commentary going on to make it humorous, I recommend you do the same. It's available for free on streaming service Tubi with very few commercials (the non-riffed version is also available uninterrupted on Prime Video). As far as appearing in movies that have been "riffed," Carradine I would guess holds the record of number of appearances in different films done by Mystery Science Theater 3000, Rifftrax and Cinema Insomnia, it has to be over 10 films. My favorite ones he was in that were riffed are "The Unearthly," "Voodoo Man," "Frankenstein Island," "Vampire Hookers" and although he was only a special guest star, "Red Zone Cuba." With that said, he has some good riffing moments in Astro Zombies but is really overshadowed by his hunchback assistant with a leering eye, Franchot (I would have thought Mongo would have been a better character name, but I guess that had been done too much). Wendell Corey may not have been in as many films riffed as John Carradine but he's been in a few of them. In all the films Wendell Corey is in (including his earlier work which another reviewer seemed to enjoy) he is an expressionless robot who seems inebriated and with loose dentures, he doesn't deserve top billing in any film (but he must have been a box office draw because he often is listed as the leading actor). Some enjoyable riffed films, besides Astro Zombies, Wendell Corey was in are "Agent of HARM" and "Women of the Prehistoric Planet." As a straight up film to watch, keep in mind this was made for a grade Z movie theater or a drive in of the late 60s, and its one of the worst even for those types of theaters, I give it a 2 strictly because of the pretty women in it which is the only thing the young male audiance would remember after watching it. Perhaps they would also remember the cool toy robot credits as well which seemed better made then the rest of the film. But, as a bad film to make fun of, it is an 8. The riffed version I saw by Rifftrax is an 8, the hour and a half runtime did not seem like a chore to watch, recommended!
Review of The Astro-Zombies
